Chapter-1 the boy who stopped speaking
Rain fell like the sky was trying to erase the city
Neon lights flickered against wet asphalt. The streets of Ludhiana shimmered in broken reflections - red,blue,gold - like shattered promises scattered across concrete.
A boy stood alone under a broken streetlamp.
Seventeen years old.
Black hoodie
Hands in pockets.
Eyes that had already seen too much.
His name was mark jassal.
He didn't speak much anymore.
Not because he couldn't
Because he learned that words were expensive...andpeople were cheap.
MAEK WASN'T BORN COLD.
He was made
Pain has a way of sculpting a person slowly -- shaving off softness, polishing edges into blades
Three years ago, he was different.
He laughed loudly. Trusted easily. Believed in loyalty
Then came betrayal
Not dramatic
Not cinematic
Just quiet.
The worst kind.
THE RAIN GREW HEAVIER.
Across the street, a group of boys laughed under a shop shade. They glanced at mark, whispered something, and smirked.
Mark didn't react.
He didn't need to.
Because storms don't argue with dust.
They erase it.
INSIDE HIS MIND, SILENCE REARED.
People thought he was clam.
He wasn't.
He was controlled.
There's a difference.
Calm is natural.
Control is earned.
And mark earned his the hard way.
THAT NIGHT CHANGED. EVERYTHING.
It was the night he understood something important:
You don't survive by being good.
You survive by being unreadable.
THEREE YEARS EARLIER.
A classroom.
White walls.
Ceiling fan making that irritating clicking sound.
Mark sat in the second-last bench.
Back then, he still believed in people.
Beside him sat Aatav - his closest friend. Or so he thought.
They had grown up together. Shared secrets. Shared dreams. Shared hunger for something bigger than the small town life waiting for them.
Mark ideas.
Big ones.
He didn't want to work for someone.
He wanted to build something.
Something lpowerful.
Something untouchable.
But ambition attracts envy.
And envy hides behind smiles.
ONE AFTERNOON, MARK SHARED HIS PLAN.
A small startup idea - online design branding for local business. He had spent weeks studying, learning, planning silently.
He trusted Aarav enough to tell him.
That was his mistake.
Two weeks later, the school principal announced a student business competition.
Guess who presented the exact same idea?
Aarav.
With a different name on the slide.
And louder confidence
Mark sat in the audience.
Claps filled the room.
Teachers praised Aarav.
Students admired him.
Mark felt something crack inside.
Not loudly.
Not visibly.
Just a quiet fracture.
That's when he learned the first rule of darkness:
Never reveal your blueprint.
After school, mark confronted him.
"why?" Was all he asked.
Aarav didn't even deny it.
He smiled.
"you're too quiet to win, mark. Ideas need bold people."
That smile.
That sentence.
That moment.
It killed something inside him.
Back to the present.
Thunder cracked above the city.
Mark walked slowly through the rain.
No umbrella.
He liked rain.
It hid expressions.
People couldn't tell if he was crying or just wet.
He reached an abandoned warehouse near the industrial area.
Nobody knew about this place except him.
This was where he rebuilt himself.
Not physically.
Mentally.
He stepped inside.
Concrete walls.
Broken windows.
Echoing emptiness
Perfect.
He dropped his hoodie
Underneath - a lean frame carved by discipline.
He had been training.
Every morning at 4:30AM.
Running.
Reading.
Learning business psychology.
Studying manipulation tactics.
Watching how powerful men speak.
Observing how weak men beg.
He wasn't going to be weak again.